After 10 days in Melaque it’s time to head south again.
At this point, we’re not sure how much farther south we’re going to go before taking our left turn inland for the mountains of central Mexico.
So far, the 1,100 miles from the Mexico-U.S. border to Melaque have kept us squarely on the RV Caravan circuit. South of Melaque is another story.
The coastal highway that winds through Colima, Michoacan, and Guerrero states sees far fewer RVers (and foreign travelers in general), and the lack of services and facilities for RVs reflects this.
We thought about taking our left turn just after Manzanillo, but we really want to stick to the coast as long as we can before the rains set in.
There used to be a popular RV park in Playa Azul (just before Lazaro Cardenas), but it sounds like it’s no longer in business.
Along the 250 mile stretch from Melaque to Lazaro Cardenas, there’s just one viable option with hookups (as far as we can tell): a small ranch on a bluff near the ocean run by a surfer dude from San Diego. And that’s where we’re headed today.
A new state for all of us. Unfortunately, we ended up spending much less time in Colima than we had thought. At one point, we thought Melaque was in Colima (but it’s actually in Jalisco, a mile from the state border).
Since we’re not heading inland to Colima City, our time in Colima State will only be about two hours before crossing into Michoacan.
The drive to Manzanillo was surprisingly smooth. On the other side of Manzanillo was a different story. One lane in each direction and tons of construction. Fortunately, we didn’t see backups like the ones going north.
The dancing dogs of Tecoman.
We definitely could have used a stop in Tecoman to have lunch and stock up on a few things. But we were specifically warned not to go into the city with an RV due to a few overpasses with very low clearance and confusion around how to avoid them.
Plus, Tecoman is one of the few cities of its size with a nice bypass road. It would have been a shame not to be able to utilize that.
And that was our time in Colima. Michoacan is another new state for Lori and me (Lori’s been to quite a few more Mexican states than I have, so it’s hard to find ones she hasn’t been to).
Since we plan to head inland after our next stop, chances are good we’ll be in Michoacan for a while.
Lush fields of banana, papaya, and coconut trees one moment, and…
…dry, scrubby ocean views the next. That’s the Aquila coast down there. And somewhere down there is Rancho B., our home for the next several days.
The 115-mile journey today took just under five hours to complete (including a stop for tacos in La Placeta de Morelos at the tail end.
The boys incentive for being good travel buddies today was their very first Bubble Tape experience. Riley asked what it was at a store a few days ago, and Lori secretly bought one to add to her reward stash.
Riley wasn’t crazy about it, but Noe is (he hoards whatever mommy gives him to break out at just the right time).
Just before 5:30 pm, we rolled up to the Rancho B. driveway. Sandy, the owner, came out to greet us and offered up his suggestions for where we might like to park ourselves.
Like Sandy, the RV park is a subdued affair. Full hookups, but not overly developed, which is part of the draw. The RV area sits on a flat plateau with views of the Pacific, and is almost completely surrounded by brightly colored bougainvillea.
Apart from one other vehicle on the opposite side of the property, we seemed to be the only ones here.
How did this all come to be out here in the middle of nowhere? Turns out, Sandy’s favorite surf break in Mexico is just down the street. He started coming down here 40 years ago, eventually opened up a surf shop up in Tecoman, bought some property down here and never left.
These days, it doesn’t sound like he surfs as much as he used to. But he keeps plenty busy working the ranch and hosting overlanders.
Very relaxing spot with the sort of hospitality we haven’t experienced so far in Mexico.
After setting up the Starlink on the roof, I took some time to admire the view. Not much else to do around here, which isn’t at all a bad thing for the moment.
The next five days lazily rolled by.
The boys love the wide open spaces to roam, Sandy’s lovable dogs, and various nooks and crannies for chilling. Here, Riley’s sorting his beloved Pokemon cards under a Higuera tree (the fruit is what they make maracas from).
Riley made fast friends with Brenda and Patrick, the retired couple in the Class C at the other end who were kind enough to indulge his appetite for showing off his growing collection of Pokemon cards.
School time.
Beach time!
A short trail leads downhill from the property to one of the least developed, most picturesque, and most deserted stretches of coastline we’ve seen in a while. Nothing but sand, coconut trees, and ocean stretching as far as the eye can see.
Still too rough to swim, but plenty else to do.
We were overdue for a video call with the grandparents. There were no excuses at Rancho B. to put it off any longer. Riley, of course, wanted to catch them up on the current state of his Pokemon collection.
Noe, on the other hand, had his growing stockpile of creations to show off.
Noe’s real interest these days is his mint sprig, which he’s been lovingly caring for since Lo de Marcos. With a full set of roots, it’s been time to plant the thing for a while. While not the best soil for planting a seedling, it’s better than what we had in Melaque, so we went ahead and did it.
Noe’s got his watering schedule figured out for the foreseeable future. We’ll keep you updated.
Not a lot of sightseeing or swimming in the ocean these days, but the boys still find plenty of ways to thoroughly exhaust themselves.
Here, we just tell them to go play outside together or apart, and we don’t see them for a while. Or we head down to the beach with our beach chair for sunset while the boys busy themselves.
It’s an ideal scenario of the boys being able to get all their wiggles out without thoroughly exhausting mom and dad in the process. We could get used to this.
We see a lot more baby sea turtle tracks than tire tracks here. But the tire tracks do still appear. Mainly just the occasional local on a motorbike commuting to/from their work in town. Besides that, we just don’t see anyone, which seems absolutely crazy on the Mexican Pacific coast (a very nice change).
Saturday, we thought it might be nice to take a walk up the beach and explore the nearby town. We picked Saturday thinking more might be up and running than when we drove through midweek.
Along the way, we saw not one but two dead sea turtles on the beach. We asked Sandy about this later in the day and explained it’s fairly common and probably has more to do with the sheer numbers of sea turtles than anything nefarious happening. Apparently, the Michoacan Coast has one of the biggest sea turtle populations in North America.
Forty minutes after leaving the RV, we arrive in the tiny beach community of Playa La Placita. From here, we’ve still got ourselves a 20 minute walk inland to town. Seemed like a good place to stop for some coffee and juices.
Of half a dozen establishments, there was just one that seemed to be functional (I’m using the word “functional” liberally here). Let’s not even talk about the fact that this is a small tourist enclave on an absolutely gorgeous Saturday morning.
The woman who appeared to be running the joint (splitting her time between a dozen other patrons doing some sort of work-related retreat and the gringos that just walked up the coast 40 minutes) eventually fished out a menu which contained no more than ten items—one of which being coffee.
Great, we’ll take two of those. And juice? Nope. Ok, horchata aguas frescas will have to do, I guess.
Some minutes later, she returned with the aguas frescas, two mugs of hot water, and a large jar of Cafe de Olla-flavored Nescafe instant coffee.
The fact that she didn’t even bother to mix it herself behind the counter and try to pass it off as legit coffee gave us a good chuckle. Even more humorous, however, was the fact that it wasn’t even regular Nescafe, but rather Cafe de Olla flavor.
In Mexico, Cafe de Olla is a traditional, labor-intensive coffee made in a big pot with a proprietary blend of spices. Each family or restaurant has their own take on Cafe de Olla.
So, we found it pretty amusing that not only does Nescafe market a product called Cafe de Olla, but that a Mexican at a restaurant would be willing to serve it so openly and unapologetically to us (DIY-style). Maybe she thought the gringos wouldn’t notice.
After our little pitstop, it was time to cover the final leg into town.
Seems that even on a Saturday, La Placita de Morelos just isn’t much of a hoppin’ place. We found the one open restaurant in town (next to the gas station, of course) and had some pretty good quesadillas and enchiladas, though we thought it was a bit odd that they still had Christmas ornaments up here in May.
Turns out, the rest of the town hasn’t quite gotten around to taking down their Christmas decorations either.
We enjoyed having our first Michoacána paletas (Mexican popsicles) in Michoacán at the corner paleteria, and poking around town a bit. And, of course, getting the obligatory picture with the Letras…
A short taxi ride later, we were back on the ranch.
It was nice to have a change of scenery, but don’t think there’s any reasons to make the trip into town again.
The boys certainly aren’t complaining. I’m pretty sure they’d like to stay at Rancho B. for another week. It seems to be agreeing with the two of them, even if they’re completely wiped out at the day.
This is the next morning, long after sunrise. Riley’s usually up pretty early, but not today.
Seems our walk yesterday (in addition to his usual outdoor antics around the ranch) did him in.
But that’s the great thing about RV life. We don’t have to be anywhere in particular most days and can start school whenever we want.
Noe gets excited anytime there is a dog at one of the RV parks. He’s spent a considerable amount of time playing fetch here at Rancho B. Riley’s never been a big fan of dogs. That’s an understatement. But Riley loves cats.
When we arrived, Sandy told Riley he’s got a couple of friendly dogs he can play with. Riley scrunched his face and asked, “How about cats?” Sandy told him that he had one, but unfortunately it ran away.
Then, a few days later, Sandy calls Riley over to show him something. It just so happens that a friend in town was looking for a home for a kitten and Sandy was looking for something to keep the critters around his house under control.
Suddenly, there was a tiny kitten in our midsts. Both boys couldn’t be happier with this new development.
Time for a call with the other set of grandparents. The friendly retired couple across the way had also helped Noe find some better soil for his mint sprig and planted a few of their own plants with Noe. Noe’s been eager to show his hard work to Nanny and Poppi.
A couple nights before we left, Sandy and his partner were nice enough to treat us all to a delicious home-cooked chicken barbecue dinner. Best barbecued chicken I’ve had in a very long time. And great company too.
Some really spectacular sunsets in these parts. Definitely going to miss that when we move on.
Sandy tried to convince us to stick to the coast a bit longer and explore the small coves and bays south of here until rainy season.
Unfortunately, I think our rig is just too big to make it down into most of those places.
Plus, we’re now into June and we’ve decided we want to start heading to the highlands before the rains start, which could be just a matter of days.
The boys have been taking advantage of the hot days (and Sandy’s sprinkler). Not sure when the last time was that they saw a sprinkler. Last summer in Oregon, maybe?
Riley’s English reading has been growing in leaps and bounds. It took Noe a bit longer to really get motivated to learn how to read, but Riley took to it much sooner.
The boys were really excited to get to hang out with Brenda down at the beach for our final evening. I can tell that Riley, in particular, is going to miss all of his new friends here.
One of the best things about this experience so far is seeing the boys’ penchant for making friends regardless of their age, where they’re from, what they look like, what language they speak, or how much they may or may not have in common.
I’m not sure most five and seven year olds would be so eager (or excited) to approach new faces with the intent of making friends.
In the U.S. there’s of course the fanatic emphasis on Stranger Danger (and we’ve had plenty of talks regarding that). But there also seems to be a general lack of inter-generational socialization in the U.S., especially as it relates to kids, which isn’t the norm in much of the rest of the world.
On the road, people seem to focus more on commonalities rather than differences, which seems to contrast a lot with the general direction of things in the States these days.
We couldn’t be happier with the situation for our kids in that respect.
We made it clear to the boys that this might be our last night on the coast for a while, which seems pretty crazy to Lori and me.
The boys haven’t been away from the beach for more than six weeks since we moved to Mexico in late 2020. Heading up to the mountains will be a whole new experience, particularly knowing that once we make that turn, we don’t plan on being back on the coast for the next four months.
As things stand right now, the plan for tomorrow is to follow the coast south for a few hours and check out one last rustic RV park near the ocean.
We have no idea what its status is or what kind of facilities they have. It may be a relatively short day, or a very long day of driving if we decide to continue onward into the highlands.
